Most of the super frustrating soundness issues that people have with their horses is because these animals simply cannot do what they are being asked because their bodies are bound up by tension.
When they are forced to perform and have to work against this tension you have chronic micro damage in the soft tissue. This leads to chronic inflammation and in many cases chronic pain.
Its easy to imagine that this soft tissue tension, these tight muscles, might start to tug on the joints??
What do you do when someone tugs on you?
You brace back so you don’t fall over.
Your horse’s joint does the same, it braces back and in that brace it loses it range of motion.
When it loses range of motion the tissues that keep it stable while moving also lose function.
Once the joint start to fixate fromthe brace it physically can no longer move and so neither can the horse.
But we keep asking and the horse in all its compliance finds a way.
He finds a way to swap that lead even if he has to cross canter 3 strides to get there.
He finds a way to hurl his body over the jump even if he has to almost hit the right standard since he only can jump off the left leg.
He finds a way until he can no longer …
Until the mind and body are broken - and those are the good ones 🧡
We stall rest and hand walk mindlessly counting the weeks of this or that activity until it’s time to go back
But what about the bad biomechanics that got us there ? That lower neck still overdeveloped, the topline hollow and the horse still cannot get the hind legs into full extension because no one ever bothered to address the hip biomechanics or why the psoas muscle is still so tight?
You did pole exercises? With unstable hips did that help the range of motion
or increase the brace ??
If you try to do athletic activity without good range of motion in your joints you will always be working against a brace
That brace not only limits potential but it also prevents the joints from developing the support that they need to be stable
Unstable joints are sore, inflamed and develop osteoarthritis. They will respond BRIEFLY to joint injections but PRO TIP - the injections will only last if you can get the joint stabilized
Good sound athletes have good biomechanics
Address your biomechanics by making sure you have strong postural muscles to support your joints THROUGH their range of motion ( and I am not talking equiband because those FURTHER decrease ROM especially when you have bad biomechanics !! )
Anyone CAN IMPROVE their biomechanics !!!!
Sometimes you have to strip down the braced muscles to be able to mobilize the joints enough to make a change.
Sometimes you have to learn horsemanship so your horse doesn’t brace just because it’s around a human Sometimes you find yourself like me on a 3 year journey learning about all the origins and help for the horse with too much tension in the system
It’s simple not easy
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